VW Golf Wins European Car of the Year

The seventh-generation Volkswagen Golf handily won European Car of the Year for 2013.

The compact five-door hatch was awarded 414 points by a panel of 58 European journalists from 22 countries. The committee gave 202 points to the second-place Subaru BRZ and Toyota GT86 sibling sport coupes and 189 points to the Volvo V40 small sedan.

The other five finalists were the Ford B-Max MPV (148), Mercedes-Benz A-Class hot hatch (138), Renault Clio supermini (128), Peugeot 208 supermini (120) and Hyundai i30 five-door hatch (111).

The Golf, which also took top honors in 1992, joins the Clio (1991, 2006) as the only nameplates to win more than once since the awards began in 1964.